`No' To Statehood

March 10, 1991

The results of a vote last week make Kuwait a more likely candidate to become this nation's 51st state than Puerto Rico. A measure declaring Spanish the island's official language was passed by the Puerto Rican legislature. In the process, any chance for Puerto Rico to become a state was probably doomed.

That is as it should be. This nation's melting pot has accommodated a great diversity of ingredients, but an island of 3.3 million inhabitants who insist on maintaining Spanish as an official language would spoil the broth.

Earlier this year a Senate committee shelved legislation that would have permitted Puerto Ricans to hold a plebiscite on whether to remain a U.S. commonwealth, seek to become a state or break away to form an independent nation. The Puerto Rican vote confirms the wisdom of the Senate's action and sends a loud and clear message that three options have been cut to two: continued status as a commonwealth or independence.

Puerto Ricans should be allowed to vote on those two choices whenever they want to. The decision should be entirely theirs, just as they were free to declare Spanish the official language. But Puerto Rico is not free to expect statehood while at the same time rejecting one of the most important elements binding this nation together: a common language.